what unites Moscow, London, Paris and New York?

The eastern regions of these cities are much poorer than the western ones.

This question is so obvious that it’s easy to forget to ask: why are eastern regions generally poor? Let’s make it clear right away that there is no secret that each city has its own prestigious and disadvantaged areas. The mystery is why the poorest groups of the population often end up in the east.

Of course, the true picture is never crystal clear or simple, but the poor east is a feature of many cities around the world, including Moscow, London, Brighton, Paris, New York, Helsinki and Casablanca. No doubt, there are cities where the opposite is true, but finding them is much more difficult.

This phenomenon seems to be easier to explain on a case-by-case basis. In London, for example, harbor docks are located downstream in the east, and in cities, docks are rarely sustainable. In addition, for most of history, city waste and its inherent smell carried eastward down the Thames. Therefore, it is not surprising that it was the poorest segments of the population who settled there.

In Moscow, the situation is similar: in the rating of the capital with the cheapest housing, half of the districts are from the Eastern and Southern Administrative Districts. This trend can probably be explained by the direction of the Moskva River from northwest to southeast. Since slaughterhouses and aeration fields were often located downstream of the river, that is, in the southeast. Consequently, living there was less status – more affluent people settled to the west.

However, in Paris and Bristol, the rivers – the Seine and the Avon respectively – flow westward. And in New York, in general, there are actually two rivers, which give the city an extremely bizarre shape. What about Brighton, which has no rivers at all? Despite all sorts of differences, these cities have one thing in common: poverty must be sought in the east.

The answer to the question why the eastern regions of so many cities are poorer lies behind the gusts of wind. In the middle latitudes, where most of the world’s cities are located, westerly winds that blow eastward prevail. It has long been believed that they carry smoke and various odors with them. And a study by scientists at the University of St. Andrews for the Research Center for Spatial Economics confirms that this theory is most likely correct.

As part of their study, Professor Janos Silberberg and his colleagues built models of 70 British cities, adding 5,000 industrial chimneys that existed in 1880. Using mathematical models, they were able to recreate the movement of air in a given terrain and determine which area would be polluted as a result. They concluded that areas with high levels of pollution are more likely to become unfavorable, and in addition, they tend to be really in the east.

In addition, a group of researchers tried to detect this pattern before the industrialization process of the 19th century, and did not find it. Interestingly, there are no winds in any of the British cities that could lead to pollution of the western regions. Another important discovery was that the area ceased to be disadvantaged when the pollution disappeared. However, if it initially exceeded all acceptable levels, then social stratification persisted for a long time, since the reputation of such areas was tarnished, and public opinion about infrastructure was difficult to change. However, the recent process of gentrification has prompted people to reconsider their views. However, this redevelopment of decayed city blocks is only taking place in large, prosperous cities such as Moscow, Paris, and London.

Of course, not all cities arose during the Industrial Revolution, not all cities are at the mercy of the westerly winds, and not all eastern regions are poor. There have been many other factors throughout history that have shaped urban inequalities, be it proximity to ports and rivers, the growth of suburbs, and in some countries racism in the form of redlining and racial segregation. However, if you do plan to move to an industrial city, say in China or somewhere else, think not only about how far the subway station or the nearest shopping center is, but also which way the wind is blowing.

Daniel Prilepsky.

Photo by mobile reporter / Moskva agency